Customer Reviews

500,000 Kilowatts Of P-Funk Power

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No need to buy this if you already own Live and Kickin. This is the same recording.

The release appeared in 2004 but that's no big help. Anyway it sounds like it's a recording made between 1995 and the release date, probably from the mid-to-late 1990s though (several songs are from the HEY MAN SMELL MY FINGER and DOPE DOGS albums era, that is around 1994).
Well, it's your usual P-funk concert, with some tracks admittedly overlong and some momentary flights. The "Let's get satisfied/Dope Dog" medley is a strong George Clinton rap, a good piece to feature on any P-funk compilation you might want to make. The overall feel is very unlike the PARLIAMENT live album from 1978 (as it should be).
For all his tireless touring around the world in recent years, I always felt Clinton's stronger suit wasn't his band's live performances. Not to dismiss them entirely: they usually play for ages, they're colorful, and more often than not FUNKY. The music has been lacking tightness for some time though, and the tracklisting on display would benefit from a deep renewal: we're always treated to a Parliament-Funkadelic greatest hits recital, while surely there are other vistas for such creative musicians to explore? The instrumental studio track included here goes some way to indicate that it wouldn't be a useless endeavour.

To this reviewer, Clinton's best work is his studio work. It's always the studio albums the fans go back to. Maybe in this time of downloading fever the money is to be made performing live? Not necessarily a bad thing in itself: real musicians shine most when playing live. This allows someone like herbie Hancock to still be on top of his game in 2009-2010. But I wish there were more P-funk albums coming out. There have been criminally few of them this past decade. On the other hand Clinton, always collaboration-friendly, makes dozens of guest appearances on other artists' records. These vocal featurings on studio ventures (from RZA to Lee Scratch Perry, from The Blind Boys of Alabama to N.A.S.A, from Primal Scream to Baby Elephant, from Aimee Terrin to Stevie Stone) are generally very inspired and trippy.

Thus, back to this release. It ends with two studio tracks, one "Ain't nuthin'but a jam y'all" which had surfaced on the DAZZ BAND release TIME TRAVELER from 2002(albeit with a slightly different mix!), and "State of the Nation", a seemingly previously unreleased P-funk allstars song greatly welcome -unfortunately, there's an annoying glitch in the middle.